January 8, 2018
TriHealth is taking a major step toward the creation of the TriHealth Heart Hospital, the region’s destination cardiac surgery center of excellence, by concentrating cardiac surgeries at Bethesda North Hospital beginning this year. TriHealth performs the most heart surgeries in the region, with the volume currently split between two locations – Bethesda North and Good Samaritan Hospital.
“We are making this decision with the best interest of our patients in mind,” said Stephen Lewis, MD, TriHealth’s System Chief for cardiac services. “The medical evidence shows a clear correlation between cardiac surgery site volumes and clinical outcomes.”
Bringing the cardiac surgery program together in one location provides a number of important benefits to patients and physicians:
• There is indisputable evidence showing that hospitals that perform higher volumes of heart surgeries have better results and lower mortality and complication rates.
• Higher site volumes allow for the addition of new and innovative structural heart and heart failure therapies, such as ventricular assist devices.
• The combined site would have enough volume to qualify as a Center of Excellence (COE) for many payers, which enables TriHealth patients to stay within the network instead of being forced to go to another program.
• Consolidating our two programs to one site reduces the on-call schedule and other demands on surgeons, especially at a time when there is a national shortage of cardiac surgeons.
“When Good Samaritan and Bethesda came together more than 20 years ago to form TriHealth, they envisioned a truly integrated health system that utilized its broad resources prudently to provide patients the best possible care – at the best cost. This decision is another step in our journey as the only truly integrated health system in Cincinnati,” said Mark C. Clement, President and CEO of TriHealth. “By bringing these two excellent program sites together, we are confident we can build a cardiac surgery program that will be second-to-none in the region when it comes to service, clinical expertise, and patient outcomes.”
Bethesda North is able to immediately accommodate increased surgical and procedural volume, has a footprint that allows for building additional facilities for long-term program growth, with proximity to cardiologists, other referring physicians, and a growing patient base. The transition, which will begin in January 2019, is expected to take 18 to 24 months and will include capital investments at Bethesda North for additional heart catheterization labs and procedure rooms.
TriHealth will maintain interventional cardiac services at Good Samaritan Hospital to meet community needs and will continue to expand its cardiology presence throughout the West Side community, including at Good Samaritan Western Ridge.
“TriHealth remains strongly committed to maintaining our two nationally recognized teaching hospitals as the east and west tertiary care anchors of the system,” said Clement. “Plans are underway to expand upon the exceptional tertiary services that are currently based at Good Samaritan – including Neurosciences, High Risk Maternity and Fetal Services, and Cancer – to support the TriHealth system and serve the greater Cincinnati community.”